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Our mission is the creation of a society in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people enjoy the basic rights of equality, privacy, personal autonomy, freedom of belief and expression, and freedom from harassment.

Our nation has unquestioned authority to control its borders and to regulate immigration. We must exercise the awesome power to exclude or deport immigrants consistent with the rule of law and the requirements of the Constitution.

is a lawsuit brought by parents, students and a former administrator against the State of California for the failure to respond to reports that districts did not provide essential language instruction to English learner students.

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Religious Liberty

The ACLU works to ensure religious liberty by maintaining the wall of separation between church and state. The ACLU is not not anti-religion but believe that government must strictly avoid endorsing any religion, and should not be seen as expressing hostility towards religion or any religious sect. By ensuring government neutrality in religious matters, the First Amendment protects members of small or unpopular religions from being subjected to oppression or isolation from their government, which should be representing all and not taking sides on religious matters. The principle further protects the majority religion from being politicized by the government, and guarantees the right of all persons to practice their religion freely and without government interference.

Boudlal v. Disney is a lawsuit against the Walt Disney Corporation for religious discrimination.

Fazaga v. FBI is a case against the Federal Bureau of Investigation for illegally spying on the Muslim community in Orange County, California. An FBI informat spied on Muslims for months without cause.

Hamdi v. U.S.C.I.S. is a lawsuit against the U.S.C.I.S. for unlawfully delaying Tarek Hamdi’s application for naturalization for being of the Muslim faith.

Islamic Shura Council v. FBI is a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to force the government to reveal information about the FBI’s surveillance of several prominent, law-abiding Muslim community leaders and organizations.

Khatib v. County of Orange is a lawsuit charging that Orange County violated the right to religious expression of Souhair Khatib. Khatib, a practicing Muslim woman, was forced to remove her hijab when taken into custody at an Orange County courthouse holding facility.

In the Mojave Cross case, the ACLU argued in the United States Supreme Court that a stand-alone Latin cross in the Mojave National Preserve is not an appropriate national memorial to American veterans. Read more about Mojave Cross.

Learn more about religious liberty: follow the ACLU of Southern California on Twitter, on Facebook, and via email.